Scenes from a Velaris Park
by RitaMordio19
Summary: Set three years in the future after the events of ACOMAF, Nesta observes as her sister Elain tries to quell her friends' arguments over a human sport by introducing a new physical contest for the males. Unfortunately, Elain loses control of the game in the midst of the Night Court's squabbling, and the resulting chaos leads to quite a show for Nesta. Nessian/Elucien/mild Feysand


**Scenes from a Velaris Park**

A/N: Thought I'd make a quick One-Shot before getting back to Acceptance. I hope you all like it!

* * *

"Feyre, catch!"

Nesta watched from her view on the sideline as the football left Morrigan's hands in a perfect spiral and headed towards Feyre, who was running down the field's edge in Velaris's main park. Suddenly, Rhysand flew up, plucking it out of the air mid-arc, and carried it the entire way back in flight, celebrating with Azriel on the far side of the field. Feyre put her hands on her hips, narrowing her eyes.

"Okay, that's just blatantly cheating."

Rhysand flew back, landing in front of her, spinning the ball in his hands with a smug look on his face. "There're no rules in this game of yours against flying."

"That's because it's a _human_ _game_ , Rhys."

"My point stands." He threw the ball at her in a mocking gesture, and her eyes narrowed further as she caught it. "Wanna go again?"

"Feyre, you just need to accept that Fae can't play games properly," called Nesta from the sideline, though her sister ignored her, setting up for the next snap.

"Are you suggesting I'm not Fae?" Cassian's growl, arriving suddenly beside Nesta, elicited an exaggerated eye roll.

"No, I'm suggesting you're incompetent."

"That's not what you–" She kicked his ankle from her chair, cutting off his speech, and offered him an acidic smile.

" _Anyway_ , why aren't you playing with them? I would've assumed your insatiable ego would've jumped at the chance to measure yourself against the other guys." She eyed him up and down, derisively. "In _every_ sense of the phrase."

He snorted, crossing his arms. "It would make one team uneven in players." An arrogant grin lit up his face. "Besides, I would never publicly embarrass Az and Rhys like that in front of their mates."

"But you have no problem embarrassing yours..." she muttered beneath her breath so low only he could hear, but his grin only grew as he leaned down to whisper in her right ear.

"Yeah, but you like it."

She turned her eyes to his, inches from her face. "You're about to see how much I 'like' it."

He stuck out his tongue briefly in defiance, but he backed away at her words as Elain cut in from her left side, undoubtedly to clear the tension between them.

"Why don't we set up a competition between the guys, then? It would give Morrigan and Feyre a break, and Cassian would be able to participate..."

"I'm down, if it gives me a reprieve from Sir-Brags-A-Lot here." Nesta broke in before Elain finished, raising her hand in agreement.

"It's not bragging if I back it up." Cassian smirked at Nesta, enjoying her torment.

Nesta crossed her eyes and shook her hands in frustration. "That doesn't even make sense!" She let out a long sigh. "Do me a favor and actually be useful, please. Can you get the other guys here?"

Cassian kept his grin, but he turned towards the field, cupping his mouth in his hands. Nesta realized just quickly enough what he was about to do, and she covered her ears just as he boomed a yell at the pair. "Rhys! Az! Get over here! The girls are having us fight to the death or something!" He turned to her in delight at the scorn apparent on her face. "Happy?"

Any reply she would have shot back at him was cut off by Morrigan's yell in reply. "Oh, I'm _a_ _hundred percent_ on board with this!" Nesta almost laughed out loud at Azriel's side-glance of unnerve at his mate's quick acceptance. Elain puffed her cheeks at frustration.

"I said an obstacle course! Don't listen to Cassian."

Nesta couldn't help but laugh harder. "Sounder advice has never been spoken."

Rhys came jogging over, football back in hand, and looked over Elain and her. "So what are the terms of this fight?"

Elain groaned. " _Obstacle course._ And there are no terms. It's just a _fun_ , _friendly_ competition."

"'Fun' and 'friendly' are oxymorons with competitions. How about we have a wager?" Feyre walked up, and coyly eyed Rhys. "How about...$137?"

"That's...oddly speci–"

"No! No wagers, no betting, just fun." Nesta's confused reply was cut off by Elain's shout, though Rhys's sharp reaction to Feyre's comment didn't escape her eye.

She checked to make sure Cassian wasn't near her and, finding him a few meters away, talking to Azriel and Mor, leaned across her chair to speak quietly in Elain's ear. "That's only because you know Lucien will lose."

"Nesta!" Her cheeks puffed further, and she huffed in irritation. "Lucien won't be participating."

"I won't be participating in what?" Elain jerked her head quickly upwards at Lucien's voice, just now approaching from behind her. He was carrying a giant cooler, which he set down with a loud thud. "I brought everyone water, by the way.

Rhys eyed Lucien with a predatory confidence. "We're all going to be fighting each other, apparently. But you're not allowed to, since we're stronger than you."

Elain's eyes widened in shock. "That is _not_ what I sai–"

Lucien exhaled sharply and shot a daggered eye at Rhys, Nesta assumed mostly for upsetting his mate. "That's all well and good; I don't feel like tainting my sword with Illyrian blood anyway." The remark elicited the expected guttural growl from Rhys, who extended his wings and allowed more of his energy to leak out in intimidation. To his credit, Lucien didn't budge, leaking Autumn fire from his body and allowing his skin to shine a golden orange, creating a chokingly hot environment that aggravated Nesta, especially because she was positive he had protected Elain from it. "Oh, he wants to play."

"Round 1, I guess." Rhys's voice was threatening enough that Nesta wasn't sure he'd hold back, and she tensed in her chair. Indeed, even Feyre's face looked alarmed as she moved to step between the two of them, though Elain interrupted again.

"No! _There will be no fighting._ We are having an _obstacle course._ " The exasperation on Elain's face broke the tension, and Rhys and Lucien cooled themselves, literally in Lucien's case, at the realization of their company.

"Oh thank the Cauldron," gasped Nesta as the soft wind from the afternoon breeze hit her face again. "Please don't do that again. I have enough alpha male in my life already, thanks."

"Yet you're organizing a contest...composed of these four males." Morrigan rose her eyebrow at amusement as she finally walked over in response to Rhys and Lucien's postures, and Nesta rolled her eyes.

"Firstly, it was Elain's idea, not mine. Secondly, there's no real 'contest,' apparently. Thirdly, an alpha male over there–" She pointed to the center of the park. "–is still miles better than an alpha male over here."

"You rang?" Cassian's voice sounded from above her chair as his smell filled her nostrils and she felt him grab the back of her chair. Her eyes began to twitch in extreme annoyance. "So...we going to have our fight or not?"

" _Obstacle course."_ Nesta and Elain responded in unison in irritation. Elain looked at Nesta in small relief at her helping, despite her alternate reasons for doing so, then continued. "So you guys will start over there– _"_ Elain pointed in the direction of the near corner of the park, at a lighter patch of grass. "–then you'll have to _run_ to the playground over there." She glared at the three Illyrians in a silent warning. "Then, you'll need to touch the swing set, the slide, and the center merry-go-round before climbing over the indoor arena next to it, running along the roof, and dropping down on the other side. Finally, you'll have to make a final sprint back to the starting point. First one to step back on the light shade of grass is the winner."

"Objection." Rhys spoke up, trying to maintain a faux scholarly tone. "There is no reason we shouldn't be allowed to use our wings. Hampering us will provide statistically inaccurate results for determining who the best male is here."

Elain glared at him. "We aren't determining the 'best male,' and you know that, Rhys. Besides, the best male wouldn't be determined by wings, anyway." She gripped Lucien's hand tightly in defense.

"Oh, I have to disagree with you there."

Despite him speaking directly above her, Nesta could still picture Cassian's expression by his tone, and she covered her face with her left hand, responding impatiently. "Can we just get this started so this one–" She jabbed up with her head to both identify Cassian and force him to jerk away a bit. "–is not hanging out right behind me?"

"So...are we using wings or no wings?" Azriel spoke up, but he immediately put up his hands at the resulting glares from Nesta and Elain. Rhys and Cassian followed closely behind as he walked towards the patch of grass.

"I think I'm gonna sit this one out, 'Lain." Nesta rolled her eyes at Lucien's pet name for her sister. "Old feelings die hard, and I'm not looking forward to being jumped at the start line."

Elain scoffed. "That's not fair; it's been three years since you came here!"

Nesta turned to her left to see Lucien offer a sad, consoling response on his face. "Three years is nothing compared to the decades we hated each other. But it will get better eventually, I promise." He leaned down to kiss her on the lips, before winking to her. "I'll see you at the townhouse, okay?"

Elain nodded, but a pout immediately sprung on her lips after he left at the thought of him feeling left out. However, Morrigan seized the opportunity of Lucien's departure, turning to Feyre and Nesta with a cruel smile. "So...what's our real wager?"

"You guys aren't seriously going to–!" Elain stopped sharply as she saw Mor and her sisters' faces light up in intrigue, and she snorted in disapproval.

"So the theatre troupe in town is opening up an opera next week." Feyre opened first, with a sly smile on her lips. "Loser pays for tickets for the winner and their mate?"

"Feyre...Rhys is literally the only one of our mates who would enjoy that." Morrigan skeptically eyed Feyre at the obvious self-benefit from the proposal.

"Yeah, but Azriel would go with you to literally anything, so your point is moot."

"Works for me." Nesta's cool reply caused both women to turn to her. "If Cassian wins, he loses. I can't _wait_ to break that news to him after his attitude today."

"But you _do_ like how he acts." Morrigan rose an eyebrow.

"Maybe." Her eyes twinkled back at Morrigan. "But this would still be one of the most enjoyable things I've done in a long time."

"Hey, we gonna start or…?" The girls turned their heads at the males, as Cassian waved his arms for attention. Nesta rolled her eyes and turned back to Elain, who huffed and closed her eyes, relaxing in the sun.

"This isn't my event anymore. Run it yourself."

Nesta shook her head at her sister, but she pivoted to the other two women. "Deal?" Seeing nods from them, she turned her head back to the men. "READY? SET!…..GO!"

All three of them took off immediately, but their actions were significantly slowed by the considerable effort they put into hampering each other's movements rather than running for the playground. Eventually, Rhys took advantage of the fact that his wings were already deployed and flew up above the other two, soaring for the playground.

"Yeah Rhys, outsmart them!" Feyre jumped up in cheer to the annoyance of the other two girls.

"Yeah, real fair, Feyre." Nesta glared at her sister, then called out to the field. "Cassian, stop losing!" He gave a quick glare at her decidedly bad pep talk before extending his own wings, then took off aff after Rhys. Azriel immediately shook his head, but followed the other two males' leads.

Rhys got to the arena wall first, but Cassian used the placement of the playground pieces to his advantage, working through the various air funnels in between the structures to maintain his speed as he touched all three, and he rapidly caught up to Rhys, slamming him into the roof of the arena. The resultant fighting gave Azriel the chance to catch up, but he couldn't avoid the other two males on top of the arena, as Rhys pulled Az out of the air, and they all tumbled off the other side with his momentum.

After no sound came from the park for awhile, the women looked at each other in concern. Nesta was about to suggest someone winnow to check on the trio, but her words were silenced as she saw Rhys turn the corner mid-flight, quickly followed by Cassian on his tail. They cleared half the field in about ten seconds, and Nesta realized Cassian wasn't going to be able to catch up. A smirk crossed her lips.

"Hey Cassian, Code Blue!" The other two women looked at her in confusion, but Cassian's eyes widened, and he reached for Rhys's feet and promptly retracted his wings back in order to become a dead weight on Rhys, knocking them both to the ground. Nesta winced at the subsequent pain she saw both of them in, Cassian clearly sporting a broken leg and Rhys bleeding heavily from his face, as Cassian took the advantage to pull his undamaged wings out and cross the finish line clearly in front of Rhys, who had to take a second to adjust to the pain. Feyre narrowed her eyes at Nesta.

"Was that really necessary?" She crossed her arms in irritation.

"Okay, I didn't know he would do _that_. I underestimate his idiocy sometimes." Nesta rolled her eyes at Feyre.

Feyre sighed and looked back at the finish line, before returning her gaze to her sister. "What does 'Code Blue' mean anyway?"

Nesta grinned. "Means I have a surprise for him later."

Feyre rolled her eyes. "Gross, Nesta."

Nesta raised her eyebrows in incredulity. "First of all, Feyre, you're one to talk. But I actually meant the opera ticket Mor is buying him." Nesta leaned back in her chair, moving her sunglasses from the top of her head onto her eyes and joining Elain in basking in the sun. She smiled again in self-satisfaction. "It will definitely be a surprise."

"You are horrible, Nesta," said Mor as she groaned at the realization she had lost the bet.

"I know," Nesta said in a matter-of-fact tone, still smug with herself.

Mor sighed, then turned back to the field. "Wait...did you guys see Azriel finish?" All three girls' eyes widened, and Mor and Feyre immediately winnowed away.

"He hit the tree on the other side, but he'll be fine. We made sure before we finished the race, since we were all at the same place." Cassian flew next to Nesta, his leg looking even worse up close. "Now can you fix this please, as this is your fault? It isn't the most pleasant feeling, to say the least."

Nesta slit her eyes. "I encouraged you to win, not to crash the two of you into the ground at over 20 miles per hour."

"Yeah, but crashing was winning, so...same difference." He looked at her in expectation.

She rolled her eyes, but she put her hand over his leg, pouring healing magic into it and watching the bone re-set itself. She glanced up at him in dismissal. "Make sure Rhys comes by so Feyre doesn't cry to me about his nose being in three places. Otherwise, I'm going to enjoy my sun now."

"Fine." He grinned and landed on his now-healthy legs, before closing the distance further between them and whispering again in her ear. "Any hints before I go?"

Her smirk returned, and she replied coyly in a low, flirty whisper as she slid down her sunglasses. "Let's just say...that it'll be a new experience for us. And that you won't be allowed to make a sound the entire time."

The vast difference between his sly grin as he left and her imagination of his later reaction brought a giant smile to her face as she reset her sunglasses and resumed bathing in the sun's fading light.


End file.
